B9.5 Cab NON B&O.. Interface needed for audio upgrade?

[ryangphoto]

Hey guys,

I am getting conflicting information from two different installers. One is saying that I need a $750 interface just to talk to the B&O system, then another said that I need an interface if I DON'T have the B&O system.

I am "upgrading" my car from a 2021 S5 cab to a 2024 S5 cab (non B&O).. and I wanted to do an audio upgrade to make the car crystal clear driving with the top down at highway speeds, unfortunately, the audio install guys are telling me I need a LOT of equipment to do that..

Right now with the 2021 B&O system it's VERY lacking with the stereo at max volume on the highway with the top down.. Going to the non B&O system I would imagine is going to be even quieter.. So I want to upgrade, but multiple shops are saying $5-$7k to make it sound loud at highway speeds with the top down.. mainly because I need a module to interface with the stereo.

Not sure who to believe at this point... or if there is even a "Module" needed to interface with our stereo system.

Any one have any thoughts?

p.s. One shop wants to use all ARC stuff 5ch amp, shallow sub in a box he will make, with rear 4" arc speakers, and possibly a 6.5 component set in the front (although there are 3 grills in my B&O system on the door)
The other place wants to use Kenwood Amps with a $500 focal component set up front, with no rear speakers and a kicker sub in a box.. $3000.

[teeoney]

If you currently have the B&O System will you will need an aftermarket adapter, because the B&O system does not use the standard 4 Ohm speakers used in the cars for years. Plus the B&O system amplifier is different.

You would be much better off keeping your current system, buying the adapter to bypass the B&O Amp, use a good amp with 75-100W to the 4 speaker locations and 400-500W on a sub enclosure. And then all brand new high efficiency speakers.

While I have no experience from the Audi Convertibles, years of experience with many other convertibles, overcoming road noise is near impossible at highway speeds with the top and windows down. It takes a very well planned out design and components, especially while maintain excellent sound quality.

I personally have the focals in my non-covertible coupe and love them, but do not have an amplifier on them.

$3000 seems low for good quality components. If you want to go a little more budget of a system, I would maybe look at the Alpine R-Series product. It has good sound quality, but the speakers are very efficient and the amps are good quality. I have no idea of the pricing now of days, I have been out of the game profressionally for a few years, but just looking on Alpine's site, I would suggest this setup:

1 - R-A90S Amplifier
1 - R2-S652 Component Door Speakers
1 - R2-S65 Rear Speakers
1 - RS-SB12 Shallow Subwoofer.

But that is just a quick suggestion. I would really try to find a shop that has experience in the A5 convertible. But also 100% understands that you want audio at Highway Speeds with the windows down.

[Smac770]

Understand the audio system configurations in a B9 vehicle. B9.0 vehicles use MIB2, with either the standard or B&O sound system. B9.5 vehicle use MIB3 (with touchscreen), with either the standard or B&O sound system. Both your cars are B9.5, therefore MIB3.

1) MIB2 with standard has a 6-ch amp integrated into the J794 control module, the infotainment control module in the glove box, driving four woofer/tweeter pairs, the front center, and the rear subwoofer.
3) MIB3 with standard has the same thing. But the MIB3 J794 no longer has any media slots (no more disc slot, no more SD slots); just a blank wall in the glove box.

2) MIB2 with B&O uses no channels integrated into the J794, and has an optical (MOST150) connected B&O amp with 16 channels driving a total of 19 speakers.
4) MIB3 with B&O uses the same speaker layout and amp channel count, but the amp channels are sourced differently. An 8-ch amp integrated in the J794 is combined with a wire (A2B) connected B&O amp with 8 channels.

So you had config 4), and you're changing to config 3)? If you're changing your vehicle, what concern is it that the B&O speaker config in the old car is different from the standard speaker config in the new car? The description of what is actually happening is a bit lacking.

[ryangphoto]

I appreciate the input.. Thank you.. Yes driving with top down at highway speeds is going to be tough to overcome.. but I would love to try.. I drive a LOT.. I don't really need sound quality (it all goes out the window with the top down anyway, not to mention I am losing my hearing a bit at this point also.

I appreciate the suggestions..

Ryan G

[ryangphoto]

Hey Smac,

I guess I just wanted to provide context with 2 different installers.. So just wondering which person was correct.

I AM getting a new 2024 S5 Cab, with base audio.. No B&O. It comes in on Friday and I pick up then. I just was trying to find out who was trying to get over on me and not being honest and trying to upsell me possibly without me knowing if they were being truthful.

I am hoping to get something in the $3k range, but really I was just trying to get it LOUD, so that I can turn it up at highway speeds with the top down.. I won't listen to it all the time like that, but when the situation arises I would love to have the ability to get things so I can hear them well and clear.

Thank you for your help here. I didn't realize that regardless of which system I get (B&O or NON B&O) it's the same. That's news to me. So thank you for that.

Ryan G

[Smac770]

The front end infotainment system is the same for your MY21 and MY24. Both are B9.5, so both use MIB3. But the back end sound system will be very different.

MIB2 with standard (config 1) and MIB3 with standard (config 3) have the same amplification and speaker configuration.
MIB2 with B&O (config 2) and MIB3 with B&O (config 4) have the same speaker configuration. The amplification config is similar but different.

But for your MY21 (config 4) vs your MY24 (config 3), there's nothing in common regarding the speakers or amplification. Your MY21 has 19 speakers and 755 watts (I believe) of power; your MY24 has 10 speakers and 180 watts of power.

If all that is of concern is "I have a MIB3 with standard sound system, how do I enhance it", then understand what you have is a fully self-contained electronics unit in the glove box, where all the tuning, media processing, DSP, and amplification (6-ch) happens. Your options include:

1) you're fine with all the sound processing (channel count, EQ, crossovers, time delay, volume leveling, etc), you just want bigger amp numbers. So take the 6-ch amp speaker outputs and run them to aftermarket amps and then to aftermarket speakers. This will still need a quality LOC (line output converter) to bring the speaker level outputs down to line level inputs, unless the aftermarket components have sufficiently capable speaker level inputs.

2a) you want to redo the entire sound processing side from scratch. Which means you need to try and get or rebuild the original L+R music signal instead of the processed speaker outputs. The high quality solution is the NAV-TV ZEN-V: https://navtv.com/products/NTV-KIT860/zen-v.html You recode the MIB3 unit to send the audio out the MOST optical bus, which you put this device on. Then it performs all the channel config and DSP you want and produces the outputs to send to aftermarket amps to drive aftermarket speakers. (confirm the Audi MIB3 with standard config is workable with just the long coding change; the NAV-TV documentation is a little light in the accuracy category).

2b) The not as pure solution is to run the factory speaker outputs into a "reverse processor". People had figured out (with special tools) how to configure MIB2 to produce generally unprocessed amp output, and you could just run with that signal. But not so for MIB3, it appears. So the need to reverse the processing if you wanted to start from an "original" signal and do what you want with it. Such devices like Helix DSP stuff ($500 to thousands).

[Christian@enfig]

Hey Smac,

I guess I just wanted to provide context with 2 different installers.. So just wondering which person was correct.

I AM getting a new 2024 S5 Cab, with base audio.. No B&O. It comes in on Friday and I pick up then. I just was trying to find out who was trying to get over on me and not being honest and trying to upsell me possibly without me knowing if they were being truthful.

I am hoping to get something in the $3k range, but really I was just trying to get it LOUD, so that I can turn it up at highway speeds with the top down.. I won't listen to it all the time like that, but when the situation arises I would love to have the ability to get things so I can hear them well and clear.

Thank you for your help here. I didn't realize that regardless of which system I get (B&O or NON B&O) it's the same. That's news to me. So thank you for that.

Ryan G

They are both correct. The best way to integrate is to use the $1000 interface. No matter what audio system you have both cars have the radio brain in the glove box. The B&O communicates with the amplifier using fiber but the non B&O uses regular wires. The radio brain on non B&O can be coded to use the fiber adapter if you are after the best quality. (most installers dont have the knowledge or tools to do this). The radio brain can also be coded from fiber to copper wire if the customer does not want to spend the money on the fiber adapter.

What is you vin number so I can verify that the convertible is the same as the non convertible.

Sounds like you are looking for volume more than quality so if you were my customer I wouldn't recommend the fiber adapter.

We make this plug and play amplifier for non B&O A5's that is a direct plug and play and makes huge improvement.
https://shop.enfigcarstereo.com/prod...pnpamp-euro16/


The harness is also available if you decide to use a different amplifier. It keeps your factory harness unmodified.
https://shop.enfigcarstereo.com/prod...fig-aai4-vw16/

[Smac770]

MIB2 uses MOST to send the audio signal to the B&O amp for processing, and the B&O amp implements all 16 amp channels.
MIB3 uses A2B over copper for the connection to the B&O amp, and only half of the 16 amp channels are implemented in the B&O amp, the rest in the J794.
I assume MIB3 still retains some code to enable sending the audio signal to the MOST, and NavTV figured out where to hack that back on. No factory implementation of MIB3 uses MOST for the audio transfer. SSP 679, page 20-21.

The 8RM basic sound system is 4-channel, with the four channels on the brown 8-pin. But the 9VD standard sound system is 6-channel, with the sub and center on the 8-pin black with the term 30 and term 31 wires. It might be more interesting to run the fronts, center, and sub to the 4 amp channels than the fronts and rears, in the 9VD config. Or the 200.4 with a separate breakout of the sub channel to a 500.1